Very strange behaviour Photosmart B9180, prints with huge amount of ink

[Gorsenmut]

Thanks! Fixed my problem. What a mess. Sent an image to print and left the office. It slid off the printer onto my laser below and covered it with ink. It then continued to the floor and made a mess on the tile, permanently staining the grout. I have no idea how much in this sucked up before your fix.

Regards,

Mitch

[dallvr]

Sorry to report that the HP Jetdirect-Socket connection to a fixed IP address did not work for me. I first set it up to work with the 3.2 version of the driver, and it did produce proper prints, although I was unable to print the test page that bypasses the driver.

Then I installed v. 3.3 of the driver from the HP software update 2.7 that came from Apple's Software Update System pref. I then added the printer using the HP Jetdirect Socket connection to printer's IP address. Still could not print the test page, but I could print the page that starts the printhead cleaning operation.

So then I ran a real life test by setting up a 4 x 6 print to be printed in the middle of a letter sized piece of photo paper, lining the desk and floor with newpaper, just in case. I wanted to make sure that if the print came out drippy, it was small so that it would not drip all over everything. The print came out with a vivid teal border surrounding the actual print out to within the edges of the paper (!) and the portion that was the 4 x 6 print was dripping wet with tons of black ink. Oddly, the teal border was dry. I took photos on my iPhone to document these bizarre results.

Let me ask again if anyone from HP ever reads these forums? As it now stands, I can't update drivers for my other HP printer, a color laser, if I want to use the Photosmart. It is time for HP to fix this issue and release new drivers that don't cause this disastrous behavior.

[dallvr]

The printer finally gave up the ghost. Even after restoring to v. 3.2 driver, I was getting bad prints. Did the NEDD test and quite a few nozzles failed. Rather than replace all the printheads and hope that things would be okay, I threw in the towel and ordered an Epson Stylus Photo R3000. It arrives on Tuesday.

[trevordublin]

The latest update 2.8 via Software Update appears to have fixed the problem.

[calhounaustin]

SOLVED! check.

Just curious, since having this problem, how many people have looked inside their b9180s to change a printhead or what-not. Much of the inside of this gadget of mine is now covered in a thin, sticky, black ink film. The bar on which the printhead-cage rides back and forth is smeared black with ink that comes off if dampened. A spongy foam bit that runs the width of the printer at the bottom is soaked in tacky, black goo. I've not yet stuck a flashlight down in there for a better look around — waiting for protective gear to arrive.

When I went to manually check a complaining printhead today, the lid on the printhead-cage stuck to my fingers when I popped it open. I was surprised. It was completely black. I didn't realize it's actually blue, until I wiped off all the ink.

Question is: after the season of ink flooding, the ink-spill, is this coating on the inside of my photosmart normal wear and tear or something else? And why have my printheads gone from good to fair to fix-me, replace-me, feed-me-money?

Things that make you go hmmm.

Related threads https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3257758 and https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3243855 at Apple in which included is the comment:

"I did contact HP by e-mial [sic] about this and got a call from them. They blamed Apple since it was downloaded from Apple Software Update. And Apple blame HP. Catch 22!"

Ah. All's (an ink)well that ends literarily.